Roberta Martin

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Roberta Martin (February 12, 1907-January 18, 1969) was an influential gospel singer and composer who helped launch the careers of many other gospel artists through her group The Roberta Martin Singers. Hardly known outside the African-American community, her funeral in Chicago in 1969 attracted over 50,000 mourners.

Born in Helena, Arkansas, Martin moved to Chicago with her family in 1917, where she studied piano. She came into contact with Thomas A. Dorsey, known as the Father of Gospel Music, through her work as the pianist for the youth choir at Ebenezer Baptist Church. With Dorsey's help, she and Theodore Frye organized the Martin-Frye Quartet, a youth group consisting of Eugene Smith, Norsalus McKissick, Robert Anderson, James Lawrence, Willie Webb and Romance Watson, in 1933. Martin renamed the group the Roberta Martin Singers in 1936 and added Bessie Folk and Delois Barrett Campbell to the group in the 1940s. Martin sang, played piano and traveled with the group until the late 1940s, when she left to concentrate on arranging, composing and publishing gospel music. She was also the choir director of the Pisgah Baptist Church in Chicago for many years.

The theme song of the Roberta Martin Singers is "Only A Look". It was always sung at the opening of their concerts, at their annual Anniversary Program in Chicago, and was recorded on the Apollo label with Bessie Folk as lead soloist and later on the Savoy label with Delois Barrett as lead vocalist. Martin's group was unique in a number of ways. It was the first to include both male and female voices in a small group format. Martin favored smooth harmonies and a subtle rhythmic dynamic in which her singers were slightly, almost imperceptibly, behind the beat. On slower songs Martin featured lead singers against a subdued background provided by the rest of the group; on jubilee and shout material she used the more energetic call-and-response technique typical of Holiness churches. Martin encouraged her singers to maintain their individual personalities, allowing the audience to distinguish each backup singer's voice rather than blending them into a single choral sound.

Martin complemented her group's performance with her piano accompaniment, which often dictated the rhythm and pace of the song or commented on it by responding to or accenting a singer's performance. Martin's piano style reflected the influence of Holiness artists such as Arizona Dranes and her classical training.

The other musical signature of the Roberta Martin Singers was the accompaniment of "Little" Lucy Rodgers Smith on the Hammond organ. Her droning introductory chord and unique "passes" using the bass pedals set the tone for a meditative experience and became a recognized trademark of a "Roberta Martin gospel song".

Martin's refined, subdued style, which emphasized phrasing and modulation, had a profound influence on many gospel artists, including James Cleveland and Alex Bradford, who wrote and arranged for and performed with her group early in their careers. Her stylistic restraint did not, on the other hand, mean that her group lacked fervor or emotional punch; as one commentator noted, "Bert would sneak up on you and hurt you."

Martin also established a successful music publishing business, the Roberta Martin Studio. Her group disbanded upon her death in 1969 but the surviving members continued to perform as a group in reunion concerts into the 21st century. Many of the members had later solo careers such as Delois Barrett, and Gloria Griffin, who was the author of the classic gospel song "God Specializes", made famous by the Roberta Martin Singers in concerts and recordings.

[edit] Further reading

• Tony Heilbut, The Gospel Sound: Good News and Bad Times Limelight Editions, 1997, ISBN 0-87910-034-6.

• Horace Clarence Boyer, How Sweet the Sound: The Golden Age of Gospel Elliott and Clark, 1995, ISBN 0-252-06877-7.

• Bernice Johnson Reagon, We'll Understand It Better By And By: Pioneering African-American Gospel Composers Smithsonian Institution, 1992, ISBN 1-56098-166-0.